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Friday, March 25, 2016

Faith Filled Friday: Contemporary Holy Martyrs for Good Friday

I
know the Brussels terror attack is very much in the news today, but I assume
most have heard about the ISIS attack in Yemen on a retirement home a few weeks
ago (March 4th) run by the Sisters of Charity, part of the late
Mother Theresa's ministry. If you haven't you can get filled in by this news
clip.

Five
Nuns ran the retirement home, one survived, a Sister Sally and she recounted
the events. The following are a second hand retelling from a Sister Rio,
written down by a Sister Adriana. Sister Sally is apparently in shock and has
not come out in public yet.

This Yemen massacre was what I think finally pushed the
Obama administration to agree that the slaughter of Christians and other
minorities in the Middle East to be classified as genocide. I don't know why it
took the Obama administration this long - it's been evident for a long time -
but at least we should be grateful they finally did.

So for Good Friday, here is the second hand retelling of
what happened that morning. The
description is gruesome and brought me to tears. You might want to pass on it.
It's a little disjointed, as you can imagine something like this might be.

Sisters
had Mass, breakfast as usual. As usual, Father stays back in chapel to say
prayers, then to fix things around the compound.

8:00am:
Said apostolate prayer and all 5 went to home.

8:30am:
ISIS dressed in blue came in, killed guard and driver.

5 young
Ethiopian men (Christian) began running to tell the sisters ISIS was here to
kill them. They were killed one by one. They tied them to trees, shot them in
the head and smashed their heads.

The
sisters ran 2 by 2 in different directions, as they have mens and ladies home.
4 working women were screaming, “Don’t kill the sisters! Don’t kill the
sisters!” One was the cook for 15 years. They killed them as well.

They
caught Sr. Judith and Sr. Reginette first, tied them up, shot them in the head
and smashed their heads. When the sisters ran in different directions, the
Superior ran to the convent to try to warn Father Tom.

They
caught Sr. Anselm and Sr. Marguerite, tied them, shot them in the head and
smashed their heads in the sand.

Meanwhile,
the Superior could not get to the convent. It is not clear how many ISIS men
were there.

She saw
all the sisters and helpers killed. The ISIS men were already getting to the
convent so she went into the refridgerator room, since the door was open. These
ISIS men were everywhere, searching for her, as they knew there were 5. At
least three times they came into the fridgerator room. She did not hide, but
remained standing behind the door – they never saw her. This is miraculous.

Meanwhile,
at the convent, Father had heard the screaming and consumed all the Hosts. He
had no time to consume the large Host, so he threw the oil out of the sanctuary
lamp and dissolved it in the water.

A
neighbor saw them put Father Tom in their car. They did not find any trace of
Father anywhere. All the religious articles were smashed and destroyed – Our
Lady, crucifix, altar, tabernacle, lectionary stand – even their prayer books
and Bibles.

10:00 or
10:15am: The ISIS men finished and left.

Sr. Sally
came to get the bodies of the sisters. She got them all. She went to the
patients to each one individually to see if they were OK. All were OK. Not one
was hurt.

The son
of the woman who was the cook (who was killed) was calling her on her
cellphone. Since she was not answering, he called the police, and he went with
the police there and found this great massacre. The police and the son arrived
at about 10:30am.

The
police tried to take Sr. Sally out of there — she refused to leave the people
who were crying, “Don’t leave us; stay with us.” But the police forced her to
go with them because the ISIS knew there were 5 sisters, and they were
convinced they will not stop until they kill her too. So finally she had to
leave. She took one set of clothes and the sisters’ bodies, and the police
brought them to an international hospital called “Doctors Without Borders” for
protection. As there was not enough room in the mortuary of that hospital for
the sisters’ bodies, the police brought their bodies to a bigger hospital
mortuary.

Sr. Sally
told Sr. Rio she is so sad because she is alone and did not die with her
sisters. Sr. Rio told her God wanted a witness and told her, “Who would have
found the sisters’ bodies and who would ever tell us what happened? God wants
us to know.”

Pope
Francis had his secretary contact the Yemen Secretary of State very often –
about once a week to check up on the sisters and reassure them of his
closeness. Today, the Pope’s secretary sent the message: “I thank them — Little
M.C. martyrs.” He said he is offering the 40-hour First Friday devotion for
them.

Sr. Sally
told Sr. Rio that Fr. Tom tells them every day, “Let us be ready for
martyrdom.”

Sr.
Judith — they were trying so hard to take her for senior course, but they were
not able to get her out.

Sr.
Reginette — they were trying to send her for junior course but could not get
her out.

God
wanted them there.

Aden is
rich city – a port city. Aden wanted to be its own state, so they got ISIS in
to help them fight against Yemen. So ISIS won for Aden. That was the war last
year, with all the bombing. They won, so that is over, but ISIS won’t leave.
They want to take over and exterminate any Christian presence. They did not
kill the sisters in the war because they had no political reason to waste time
on them. But now, they are the only Christian presence, and ISIS wants to get
rid of all Christianity. So they are real martyrs — died because they are
Christians. They could have died so many times in the war, but God wanted it to
be clear they are martyrs for the faith.

Sr. Rio
said Sr. Sally is fully surrendered. The police are trying to get her out
because they will just keep after her until they kill her. She is fully
surrendered and told Sr. Rio – whatever God wants. She said the other Muslims
are so respectful of them. She said to pray that their blood will be the seeds
for peace in the Middle East and to stop the ISIS.

She said
that if they kidnapped Father Tom most probably they will wait 2 days, then ask
in exchange for Father Tom either money or the release of their members held in
prison.

Sr. Rio
said they were so faithful – ISIS knew exactly when they leave and when to
break in. And because of their faithfulness, they were in the right place at
the right time and were ready when the Bridegroom came.

Sr.
Adriana said she thinks the crushing of the heads has some evil connection with
“She will crush head of the serpent,” some kind of mockery or evil meaning.

I thought that after the Holocaust, the world promised
never again would we be idle in the face of genocide. But as you can readhere, there has
been a long string of genocides across the world since WWII. I don't know why
humanity succumbs to such evil, but here it is again. On this Good Friday, give
a special prayer or two for the innocent people massacred here and across the
Middle East, especially for these modern day Holy Martyrs who have died simply
for being Christian. May they rest in peace.